Each module in Designing Cities will focus on a different aspect of city design including: How Today’s City Evolved; The Ideas That Shape Cities; Tools for Designing Cities; Making Cities Sustainable; Cities in the Information Age; Preserving Older Cities; Designing New Cities, Districts and Neighborhoods; The Challenges of Informal Cities and Disadvantaged Neighborhoods; and Visionary Cities. Materials will be presented by the instructors and guest faculty from PennDesign through a series of five or more lessons per module, each typically 10-12 minutes long.
The first lesson in each module will be a roundtable discussion among professors Stefan Al, Jonathan Barnett, and Gary Hack introducing the big issues associated with the subject. Each succeeding module will be a self-contained illustrated presentation of a set of ideas and images. There will be a list of suggested readings for those who wish to follow up on the ideas in each module.
Everyone enrolled in Designing Cities will be expected to complete 3 assignments. These will be posted on the course site and they will be in the form of peer assessments. There will be a great deal to be learned from the ideas participants submit, reflecting cities of all sizes and circumstances across the globe so once you submit your assignment, you'll be able to see what your peers have done.

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Cities in the Information Age

This week we focus on the issue of communication in cities. The ability to communicate with others is becoming the central purpose of cities as they become more and more centered on service economies. It determines where people wish to live, their travel patterns, the needs for electronic networks and the need for public places. We explore here what designers can do to create modern information centered places. Week 4 ended with a discussion of green infrastructure and renewable energy. The first session of Week 5 follows up on this, focusing on how cities can manage energy consumption. Energy is the essential input for cities, and the form, layout and energy sources play a large role in determining how efficiently cities operate. The second session joins energy and communication, by focusing on the electronic networks that are an essential infrastructure of cities. Energy is not simply electrons operating within wires or over space, but also the vehicle for conveying meaningful information. We see how cities control their systems, protect from threatening incidents, and promote communication between their residents. While new electronic networks allow people to live at a distance from each other, they have also promoted face-to-face communication. The public and private spaces in cities provide the settings for people to meet, see others and interact. How they are designed can make a large difference in whether cities are considered sociable. Finally, we explore the desire by many people to live in places that are near their work, shopping and recreation. Some cities have always had such places, but many more recent cities were founded on the modernist idea of separating the functions of cities. We will look at examples of successful mixed use buildings and neighborhoods. We are also in the midst of the second assignment, which asks you to identify great places in your city. Keep in mind the lessons of this and the past week’s sessions as you take photographs of places that you value.